Feeding kids healthy meals can be a challenge for most working parents, yet it’s crucial to ensure that kids are getting healthy snacks throughout the day in order to maintain their health, energy, schoolwork, and play.
It’s much easier for parents to instill healthy eating habits while kids are young. Luckily, it’s not hard to offer up healthy snack options such as these:
- A bowl of fresh strawberries or even frozen fruit on a hot day.
- Smoothies (with veggies thrown in too) as an afternoon snack when kids get home from school.
- Fresh fruit like apples or bananas dipped in nut butters -- try almond, cashew, or peanut.
- Whole grain crackers and veggie sticks with ranch dip (which you can make easily with ranch seasoning mixed in to plain Greek yogurt).
- Fruit leathers, whole grain crackers, and chips that have the least amount of processing, sugar, oil, and artificial ingredients. Down to Earth carries many healthy snack products from brands like Annie’s, Barbara’s, Blue Diamond, bare, Boulder, Angie’s, dang, and Earth Balance.
- Healthy cereals from Down to Earth (put some into a baggie, with a few nuts thrown in, for a snack if you’re in the car and hunger strikes).
- Edamame (high in fiber and protein) can be kept handy in the freezer.
- Fresh-made popcorn (avoid the microwave variety), with a little bit of coconut oil, nutritional yeast, and spike for flavor.
By incorporating healthy snacks into your child’s diet, you are taking a proactive approach to their health. This prevents having to take a reactive approach in the future, once the damage of unhealthy habits has taken hold.